Thursday 5 March 2015

A moment of self-realization : filled with optimism


I believe that optimism in life is something that's to be felt to be believed. It's just a moment where you have the sudden realization that YES - the future ahead beholds something very special. A moment of optimism gives you a belief or inspires you to lead a better today for a better tomorrow. Today, I share a story from my life that filled me with optimism and hope for the future.

Just 1 year back, I was selected for a debate competition in New Delhi, where I was to speak on the topic of "road safety". This debate competition was to have participants from the very best of schools in and around Delhi NCR and for someone like me who had never attended a debate on such forum, leave apart speaking myself, I was naturally very much nervous and concerned and asking myself - do I even stand a chance to WIN!

This is where my father came in with his wisdom and changed the way I went about the debate and filled me with optimism that it's not always the win that counts but the impact you make. In my father words, he said "do not speak to impress people, speak to influence and inspire them - that's the quality of a good speaker".. Further he added "winning and losing isn't a criteria to judge a good speaker, the lesser amount of time you take and the easier that you make the hardest of the topics sound is in fact the art of a good speaker".

This coming from someone who started off his corporate career having no base of English language, someone who was frightened of the stage to someone who with optimism and positivity and is today an HR Trainer, this coming from him meant the world for me.

I took part in the debate competition and as my father said it "I explained the most difficult of the topics with ease", at least I tried to. The final result was; I stood 2nd in the debate competition and everyone lauded my style of speaking, especially quoting real life incidences of how the Indian traffic system is yet to implement the required systems to make following traffic rules a necessity and not just a matter of "if you're caught, your bad luck and if not, your good luck".

When I came home and showed the trophy and cash prize to my Dad, I could see that his eyes were filled with pride and joy. It was his optimism that had led me to this victory and it was this very positive attitude and moment that has influenced me in the last 1 year, where I've took part in various debate competitions and haven't seen winning as the criteria to making my point but instead gathering audience attention and inspiring them in whichever small way I can, at least that's the single largest goal of mine.

This very incident has also made me optimistic of the future that if I ever go on more such big stages, where the pressure to perform shall go higher and higher, it'll be the optimism of my father behind me, someone who "believes in me" that will definitely drive me to strive for goodness and not just victory.

It's moments filled with optimism like these; someone from your family backing you or a smile you got from the crowd that make life worthwhile - talking about myself, as a speaker.

So then there's my story of how a moment with my father filled me with optimism and hope for the future - where I shall stand ready for any and every platform, regardless of how tough it may be, I'm ready. :)

Aditya Jha Author

Aditya Jha is 20 years old and has had a passion for writing since a young age. He has had the great honor of being published in the book "blank space", which featured his fictional short story "a writer's tale". He has also published 2 ebooks - Best.Generation.Ever. and An Iron Lady (Autobiography on his grandmother's life). He has great passion for speaking and is a Delhi University Debator - having won various laurels for his speaking.

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